FIVE DAYS; Some Numbers Soar While Some Others Slump

By MARK A. STEIN

Published: October 28, 2006

ROBUST corporate profits and flagging inflation propelled the stock market to new heights, but economic news on the ground was not as encouraging. Automakers said they lost billions of dollars in the third quarter, unemployment claims spiked and the housing market slowed faster than expected.

In Houston, a federal judge closed the books on the decade's defining business scandal by sending a former corporate executive to federal prison for more than two decades and stripping him of his fortune.

ENRON EPILOGUE -- Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in prison for his role in the company's collapse. At the same time, Judge Simeon T. Lake III of Federal District Court ordered him to forfeit $45 million, which prosecutors said would effectively wipe out his fortune.

Mr. Skilling, 52, faced the judge alone, without Kenneth L. Lay, Enron's founder and Mr. Skilling's co-defendant in the criminal trial that ended with both men convicted of heading a conspiracy to defraud investors. Mr. Lay died of heart problems in July, and because of that his guilty verdict was vacated last week.

The judge said Mr. Skilling could stay at home under electronic surveillance until a federal prison is selected to house him.

UNPLEASANT SURPRISE -- Constrained by a flagging housing market, the economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.6 percent in the third quarter, the slowest pace since early 2003, the Commerce Department reported.

Economists had expected some slowing, but only to about a 2 percent rate. The economy grew at a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.6 percent in the second quarter and 5.6 percent in the first.

The effect of the housing slump -- residential construction plunged by nearly one-fifth in the quarter, the steepest decline in 15 years -- knocked 1.1 percentage points off the overall figure for economic growth.

Updated information on both residential and commercial development will come Wednesday, when the Census Bureau is scheduled to release its latest statistics on construction spending.

STEADY COURSE -- Suggesting it believes the economy is heading for a so-called soft landing, in which interest-rate increases slow inflation without causing a recession, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady at 5.25 percent.

While falling gasoline prices have brought down the overall inflation rate, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge -- which excludes volatile energy and food prices -- has risen to an annual rate of 2.5 percent, according to the Commerce Department. The Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, has said he prefers that this core inflation rate be 1 to 2 percent.

Keeping rates relatively low may be good news for retailers as the country heads into the holiday shopping season, particularly as consumers worry about home prices. The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes declined 1.9 percent in September from August, and the median sale price fell, to $220,000 from $225,000.

Further evidence of the economy's health will come Tuesday, when the private Conference Board updates its consumer confidence index, and Friday, when the federal government updates the jobless rate.

ANOTHER GUSHER -- Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said it had another impressive quarter, earning more than $10 billion in profit for the three months through September, even as crude oil prices fell.

Chevron, the country's second-largest oil company, said it made a profit of more than $5 billion in the same period, the first time that its quarterly profit exceeded that mark in its 127-year history.

ConocoPhilips and other companies said their profits were less impressive, partly because crude oil prices slipped late in the quarter. The current price, $60.80 a barrel, is below the July peak, when a benchmark contract price skirted $80, but it remains high by long-term standards -- twice as expensive as three years ago and still above last year's average.

Higher energy prices may return soon. Recent statistics showed inventories were falling in the United States, just as cold weather began to arrive in the Midwest and the Northeast.

DETROIT BLUES -- The Ford Motor Company said it lost $5.8 billion in the three months through September, and its new chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said the company faced a ''critical time'' in its 103-year history.

At the same time, the Chrysler Group, said it lost nearly $1.5 billion on operations in the same period. General Motors also posted a loss in the quarter, of $115 million, but after stripping out one-time costs at its finance unit and a semiautonomous parts company it made a profit of $529 million in the July-to-September period.

The problem for all three American carmakers was the same: high gasoline prices depressed sales of their most profitable vehicles, S.U.V.'s, while pension and health care costs soared. That squeeze led G.M. to lose $10.6 billion last year. Ford has already lost $7.2 billion so far this year; its full-year loss may exceed $9 billion.

Ford said that its sales would probably be surpassed soon by Toyota and that it did not anticipate a profit in North America until at least 2009.

STORMING THE GATES -- Having failed to bully his way onto the board of Time Warner, the corporate raider Carl C. Icahn succeeded in taking control of ImClone Systems, the maker of biotechnology drugs best known as the company whose shares were at the center of the scandal that led to a jail term for Martha Stewart.

Joseph L. Fischer resigned as the company's interim chief executive, and the company said it would replace him with an executive committee headed by Alexander J. Denner, an associate of Mr. Icahn's, until a new chief executive is named.

Three directors also agreed to step down at the company's next annual meeting, early next year.

MOST POPULAR Following are the most-popular business news articles on nytimes.com from Oct. 21 through Oct. 27:
1. Beware of the Squish Behind the Jet Seat

2. We're Google. So Sue Us.

3. Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards

4. Doctors Rethink Widespread Use of Heart Stents

5. Slabs Are Joining Scoops in Ice Cream Retailing

Links are at nytimes.com/business.

Photo: Jeffrey K. Skilling, second from right, was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. (Photo by Michael Stravato for The New York Times)